A multibillion-dollar transit plan that includes a downtown tunnel and electric light rail lines in north-south and east-west directions has been passed by Ottawa city council despite criticism that questions about important details have not yet been answered.

City council voted 19-4 in favour of the plan Wednesday afternoon.

The plan, also known as "Option 4" because it was the last of four options proposed by staff earlier this year, would replace the bus transitway with electric light rail from Baseline to Blair stations in the east-west direction and upgrade the single-track diesel O-train to twin-track electric light rail in the north-south direction, extending it south to Bowesville and the Ottawa International Airport.

The most recent estimates of the cost are more than $5 billion and suggest no electric train will be taking riders for at least another eight years.

During discussions leading up to the vote, councillors asked many questions about the plan, but in the end, many details weren't clear, including:

• A good estimate of how much the system would cost.
• Who would pay for it.
• How long environmental assessments would take.
• How much it would cost to buy the land needed for the rail beds.
• Whether Gatineau would be involved.
• Whether the east-west line would run along the Ottawa River Parkway as council wishes.

Plan too expensive: councillor

College ward Coun. Rick Chiarelli voted against the new plan, balking at the newest estimated price tag.

"This is over $5 billion," he said. "And that doesn't include some pretty major segments — and there wasn't one document showing even at a high level how we could afford to pay for it."

Chiarelli had earlier voted against council's previous $800-million light rail plan, which was cancelled in 2006.

Even some councillors who voted in favour of the plan, such as Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans, said their endorsement was a leap of faith.

"What you're really putting before us today in my mind is a blueprint — a blueprint for the future," she said. "And as a blueprint, I'm prepared to say OK."

But she said she wasn't encouraged by the discussion leading up to the vote.

"There are an awful lot of question marks and an awful lot of worry signs."

Mayor Larry O'Brien said he thinks reluctant councillors will come around.

"The people who voted against it, they wanted more information," he said. "That information will be forthcoming in the fall."

Work to start on tunnel first

City staff will be working to get more detailed plans ready for September.

In the meantime, Nancy Schepers, the deputy city manager in charge of planning and transit, said the first step in the plan is to begin work on the $500-million tunnel that will run beneath downtown Ottawa. Deciding whether it will connect first to an east-west or north-south line will come later, depending on which one is "affordable and doable and is going to get you the ridership gains."

David Jeanes, head of the transportation lobby group Transport 2000, said he doesn't think the plan is adequate for convincing federal and provincial governments to put up some of the billions of dollars needed for the project.

"Most of the other cities that are getting extensive federal money have well-developed plans that are ready to move forward, shovels are in the ground or soon to go in the ground," he said. "And we're still churning around here not knowing what we want to do first."

Council also voted Wednesday to extend the light rail network to Scotiabank Place in the west, Place d'Orleans and Trim Road in the east and Barrhaven Town Centre in the south if those areas achieve certain minimum density targets and if there is a business case and funding available to support the extensions.